Brushes With Celebrity

[BillVol]

Thought this might be a more popular topic. Three other brushes with celebrity I've had, but not as involved as the one with Stanley Floyd.

After one of the sessions of the '96 Olympic Trials in Atlanta, I was going up one of the escalators in a MARTA station, turned around and there was Jim Ryun. I got his autograph, which included a Bible verse. I've heard he's signed his name this way for years.

At the Tennessee prep cross country championships in Nashville, I met Dave Wottle. I believe he had two sons involved in the meet. Also got his autograph. Very nice guy.

I guess the "brush" I'll remember more than any is when I met Edwin Moses at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta. This was in 1998. It was my very first date with the woman I'm now married to. If you've ever been to Augusta, you know I picked a good place to have a first date! And I'm not even a golfer. I was on floating on air, what with being with this great gal and being at Augusta National. But when I saw Edwin Moses, I had to excuse myself. He was surrounded by several people, but I managed to shake his hand and say hello.

I also met Wilt Chamberlain at the Montreal Olympics at a basketball game at the Forum. He counts as a track guy, too! ;-)

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

One year at the Ohio High School championships, I saw a tall skinny guy in the front row who looked wierdly familiar but I couldn't place him. I finally figured out that it was Butch Reynolds.

The only complaint I had about my trip to Edmonton two years ago with T&FN Tours was that our hotel was downtown while the athletes stayed out by the university. A bartender in that area said that athletes came in nearly every night; the night before, Jonathan Edwards and Bronwyn Eagles were knocking 'em back. It's one thiing to get a star's autograph, but it's quite another to drink with them!

I'll say that the nicest person I've ever run into at a staged autograph session was Khalid Khannouchi. He was at the Runner's World Half Marathon in May, and insisted on taking time to talk to each person. He's a real class act. Another who ranks up there is Allen Johnson, who appears to really enjoys signing autographs and posing for pictures no matter how long it takes.

When I met Selila Sua at the T&FN Tour function, I recognized her right away and asked for a picture and autograph. She seemed totally amazed that I knew who she was.

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

In my brush with great runners, I have the following story to tell. My sister's husband is good friends with Khalid Khannouchi.
A couple of years ago at Christmas Khalid and his wife Sandra came over to wish them a Merry Christmas. I talked to them for a few minutes and left for my ride back to NYC.
The real story is next year at NYC Marthon time Khalid is at the expo talking to the other runners. I worked as a Sergeant with NYPD in the Street Crime Unit in that area ( we use yellow NYC taxi as vehicles ). We make a arrest down at 42 st and westside highway, and recovered 2kilo of cocaine. As I am driving back to Pct with the cocaine I see Khalid with his wife running up from Javis Center trying to catch a cab. So I pull over and say get in ( we know how hard it is to get a cab in NYC even if you are the worlds greatest marathon runner ). They dont know its me and say they are going to the hotel. Well here I am with this great marathoner his wife and 2 kilos of coke.
I turned around and tell them who I am and we all had a laugh, told them what I was doing here and laughed again. I guess bottom line is Khalid and his wife were real nice people,easy to talk to, and he said he would sign any thing I wanted. I dropped them off and went on my business.
What headlines that would have been World Record Marathoner in cab with large amount of cocaine Ha Ha the NY Post would have eaten that up.

[CoachKoby]

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

Have met many world class athletes over the years, but three of the nicest were (and are) Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Priscilla Welch. Also met Lisa Rainesberger (sp?) last year and found her very approachable. Living in Gainesville, FL I see Byron Dyce and Marty Liquori often and there's no hint of arrongance in either one of them. Met Jos Hermans in Atlanta during the Olympics and he was very surprised that I knew who he was and what his accomplishments were.

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

I go through LAX regularly and have seen many celebrities there. Within a few weeks years ago I saw Dolly Parton and Mr. T. He was a lot smaller than I imagined. She wasn't.

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

I remember at the Modesto relays this year i was waiting to get on the track for the 4x4 and Micheal Johnson was about 10 feet away from me. he is taller than i thought. at the same meet lary wade, maurice greene, jon drummond, and some others were all hanging out RIGHT at the place our team was set up. Jon drummond asked me if i was using a chair right beside me and i said no, not realizing who it was haha. maurice is kinda short but huge. i also walked past stacy dragila and dwain chambers at that meet. didnt ask for any autographs cause why do i need someones name signed on a piece of paper?

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

Being from Des Moines, I have met a few Olympians at the Drake Relays. I first met Michael Johnson and briefly spoke to him. I also met Gwen Torrence and her husband took a picture of us sitting inside the fieldhouse, it was snowing outside. She seemed really nice.
I also met Carl Lewis and had him autograph his biogrophy at the time. When some of the girls on my track team saw me speaking to him they wanted me to ask him if they could get their picture taken with him. So I went over and asked him, his face lit up and he said sure! He seemed very arrogant, but at least he was polite enough to do it.

[197hjsteve]

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

Here's an oldie for you.

In summer of 1963 I was at a Nedick's orange juice stand at the corner of 8th Ave. and 34th St. in New York City, when I spotted Edwin Roberts, North Carolina College's ( now North Carolina Central ) ace sprinter from Trinidad. I recognized him because their coach, the now famed LeeRoy Walker, used to bring his athletes over to Duke to practice quite a bit, and I was a high jump guy at Duke.

Anyway I had a great chat with him. Yacked about all sorts of track things. He said goodbye by stating that he wanted to "get better" in 1964.

Well he got better all right, he got a bronze medal in the 200 in Tokyo.

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

Many scattered ones from 20-some years as a runner, then an aspiring track journalist.

- When I was a small-timer getting ready to run 81 NCAA XC, Chris Fox was extremely nice in talking with me about the course.

- As a lucky-to-get-a-room 31-min. 10k'er in 89 at a big road race, sharing a room with a very kind and humble Steve Kogo. I gave him a sandwich I had and he treated it like it was gold.

- Running 2-3 times with Craig Virgin with 1-2 others in Atlanta when he was in the twilight of his career in 1988-1990. Generally a very nice guy.

- Autographs and chatting with Francie Larrieu when I was a kid in the 70s. Very nice.

- Getting to know Pete Cava at some meets the last few years. Great guy.

- Talking with Alberto Salazar on the phone recently. Very cool.

More to come...

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

I have to add re: autograph-seeking ... I generally think it's stupid, too ... but I was with a friend who was doing it (I was 38, he was even older) at Sacramento in '00 and suddenly I couldn't help it. It was like I got the bug.

I passed up a lot, but did get some of the people who I really thought were stars for the ages, like Devers, etc. And when there was a chance to get Liquori, Stones, Mills, Powell... I couldn't help myself at all.

You know, Stones' name gets tossed around an awful lot because he's on the line broadcasting, but I think he's truly one of the all-time track and field "stars." (in the truest sense of the word).

Also, you may laugh at me for putting Cava on my list, but great journalists/stat guys/press guys are a big deal to me, too. I've also been thrilled to meet Jeff Hollobaugh, Dick Patrick, Hal Bateman, Marc Bloom, Walt Murphy, etc. They're insiders in the greatest sport in the world! What more can you ask for if you can't be a track star yourself?

[Bauchwalzer]

Brushes With Celebrity

I've been fortunate. To wit: Sergey Bubka, Armin Hary, Livio Berruti, Rafer Johnson, Hayes Jones, Adolph Plummer, Roger Moens, Herb Elliott, Wilma Rudolph, Jack Davis, Ron Morris, Ralph Boston, Al Oerter, C.K. Yang, Al Hall, Jim Hines, Allan Wells, Lindy Remingino, Rudy Haluza, Willie Banks, Harrison Dillard, Tonie Campbell, Russ Rogers, Roger Morgan, John Walker, Adehemar da Silva, Larry Stuart, Dallas Long, Gil Cruter, Les Steers, Ken Wiesner, Ernie Shelton, Bengt Nilsson, Stig Pettersson, John Thomas, Joe Faust, Ed Caruthers, Pat Matzdorf, Reynaldo Brown, Rolf Beilschmidt, Henry Lauterbach, John Dobroth off the top of my head.

[bambam1729]

Re: Brushes With Celebrity

Here's an oldie for you.

In summer of 1963 I was at a Nedick's orange juice stand at the corner of 8th Ave. and 34th St. in New York City, when I spotted Edwin Roberts, North Carolina College's ( now North Carolina Central ) ace sprinter from Trinidad. I recognized him because their coach, the now famed LeeRoy Walker, used to bring his athletes over to Duke to practice quite a bit, and I was a high jump guy at Duke.

Anyway I had a great chat with him. Yacked about all sorts of track things. He said goodbye by stating that he wanted to "get better" in 1964.

Well he got better all right, he got a bronze medal in the 200 in Tokyo.

Why are you now 197hjsteve, steve?

[mump boy]

i don't do autographs but do have my pic taken with any athletes i come across and have met most of the one i want. my highlight has to be Martine Hellman, Ulrike Myfarth and Barbel Wockle in Munich 02 and dancing with Irina Szwezinksa and Alberto Juanterena in Athens 06and having the photos to prove it

in fact after that i think i can die happy

the one that got away was Ana Quirot but i'm still hopefull she'll pop up somewhere.

[paulthefan]

Well it wasn't John L. Sullivan but it was close, an hour period once included chats with Dwight Stones, Al Joyner and Mark Belger (all in San Diego in the summer, maybe you can guess the year). All three were top notch guys.


Id trade it all in for a dance with Barbel though that is for sure.

[no one]

lots of guys ... but probably the most impressive to me was Pete Rozelle, who I worked on a project with intermittently for about a year. What an impressive human being.

Another is Don Meredith who was incredibly intelligent, very well read, and not all that impressed with football.

okay I'll turn out the lights